Special report:
2008 Olympic
Games
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An official with the BOCOG in charge of the tickets sale, Rong Jun, explains the Olympic ticket sale policy. (Photo: beijing2008.cn)Photo Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The sale of the second
batch of Olympic tickets has been suspended after the booking system crashed due
to overwhelming demand on Tuesday, the first day tickets became available.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic
Games (BOCOG) said Tuesday night in a statement that they had decided to
temporarily halt domestic ticket sales to improve the technical system and will
announce new ticketing information on November 5.
"We underestimated the public's enthusiasm for the
Games...We sincerely apologize to the public for the inconvenience," Rong Jun,
head of the Olympic ticketing center, told a press conference Wednesday.
The 1.85 million tickets went on sale Tuesday on a
first-come, first-serve basis through the ticketing website, a hotline and 1,000
designated branches of the Bank of China.
But demand was much higher than organizers
anticipated. The ticketing website saw 8 million hits in the first hour starting
9 a.m., while the ticketing hotline received 3.8 million calls, said Rong.
"All this exceeded the processing capacity of the
system," he said. "It was due to the database processing, not the bandwidth. We
are working to improve the database capacity."
The ticketing database, which handles all purchases,
can process 150,000 per hour but there were 200,000 in the first hour, said
Rong. And only 43,000 tickets were successfully purchased before the system
crashed.
Rong said they are also likely to make changes to the
ticket sales policy to better accommodate demand.
A total of 7 million tickets are available for the
Games, with some 75 percent reserved for domestic sale. The first 1.6 million
tickets were allocated after a lottery earlier this year. The third phase - from
April to August next year - will also sell tickets on a first-come, first-serve
basis.
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People ask a bank consultant about
purchasing tickets for next year's Beijing Olympics in a branch of Bank of
China in Beijing, capital of China on Oct. 30, 2007. Some 1.85 million
tickets for next year's Beijing Olympics will be on sale on a first-come,
first-serve basis when the second round of domestic sales started Tuesday.
(Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery>>> |
Olympic ticket sales
suspended
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The sale of the second batch
of Olympic tickets has been suspended after the booking system crashed under
overwhelming demand on Tuesday, the first day tickets became available. Full story
Booking system crashes under huge
demand for Olympic tickets
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A man waits to book Olympic taickets on
the official ticketing website Oct. 30. The sale of the second batch of
Olympic tickets was suspended after the booking system collapsed under
overwhelming demand on Tuesday. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The booking system crashed under "unexpected" huge
demand for the second batch of Olympic tickets when sales started on Tuesday
morning.Full story
2nd phase of Olympic ticket sales
kicks off
BEIJING, Oct. 30 -- Tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
are again available for mainland citizens as the games organizers kicked off the
second stage of Olympic ticket sales on Tuesday. Full story
